Exhibition "In the Forests of Borneo"
The Giants of the Forest
It would be impossible to provide a complete overview of the botanical wonders of an island like Borneo, but an “honourable mention” is owed to the species that more than any others create the environment—that is, the great trees that give the forest its structure and that themselves become, each individual one, vibrant ecosystems supporting hundreds of other life forms that rely on them for food and shelter
We are speaking above all of primary forest, where the giants have reached such size by growing undisturbed for centuries—or, to use Odoardo’s words:
that truly primeval forest, which in Borneo is characterised by the great size of the arboreal plants, by the endless variety of species of which it is composed, and by its richness in endemic forms.
Odoardo Beccari, 1902
In these forests, Odoardo repeatedly admired the tree he rightly considered “the largest and most majestic in Borneo, and certainly one of the most gigantic in the entire world” (O. Beccari, 1902, p. 172). This is the Tapang, also known as the Menggaris tree, valued by the locals for its enormous planks: a colossal legume, of which he would be the first to obtain the flower specimens necessary for its scientific description.
Koompassia excelsa - iNaturalist, shanshaojie
Equally extraordinary are the dimensions of many species from another characteristic family of these regions, the Dipterocarpaceae, with large seeds dispersed over long distances via winged fruits, which today—due to the high value of their timber—are among the main reasons for the often destructive and irreversible exploitation of these environments.
In the forest, herbaceous species can also reach colossal proportions, such as ferns or the many species related to ginger (Zingiberaceae), and occasionally the palms as well, which are given a dedicated section in the exhibition because of the special connection Beccari established with them during his later years.
Rubroshorea balangeran - iNaturalist, rmf_wildlife
Rubroshorea macrophylla - iNaturalist, hutan90
Richetia faguetiana - iNaturalist, pfaucher
Dipterocarpus confertus - iNaturalist, arief9